


Supplementary Topics in Film History & Posthumous Malice

by miniaturedragonfly



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: (by the end anyway), Gen, Post-Episode s05e04: Cooperative Polygraphy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:20:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27694729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miniaturedragonfly/pseuds/miniaturedragonfly
Summary: Pierce and Abed used to get along.  The troll doll ruined that forever.--I’m dissatisfied with what Pierce left for Abed in Cooperative Polygraphy, so I decided it needed backstory.
Relationships: Pierce Hawthorne & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir (mentioned)
Kudos: 28





	Supplementary Topics in Film History & Posthumous Malice

Pierce and Abed used to get along.Abed, at first, admired the way that Pierce commits to things and doubles down on them whenever necessary.Pierce, for his part, didn’t really notice anything one way or the other about Abed at first—until after Jeff stormed out of the library that first night, and Abed tried getting them back on their _Breakfast Club_ track with another quote.

“You know why guys like you knock everything?” he’d called after Jeff’s fleeing back.“It’s because you’re afraid.”

He was going to go on, but Pierce cut in with “Hey, that’s from that movie. _Sixteen Candles!_ ”

“ _Breakfast Club_ ,” Abed muttered, miffed, but then Pierce said he knew Molly Ringwald in the 80s, and Abed’s eyes got wide.

“Ay-bed looks like he wants _de_ _tails_ ,” Pierce chuckled.Britta said he was disgusting, and Shirley rolled her eyes, but Abed made a mental note to find Pierce sometime and see if he could be persuaded to share some  _non_ sexual details about knowing _Molly fucking Ringwald_ in real life.

It turned out, later, that Pierce was exaggerating—he’d met Molly once when he visited the set of _Sixteen Candles_ for some vaguely-defined Hawthorne Wipes business, which was also why that was the only title he remembered of any of her movies.Abed was disappointed, but Pierce was desperate enough to seem cool and make friends that he casually mentioned his “2002 state-of-the-art home movie theater” and that any of the study group members were welcome to stop by any time to “hang out” and “watch a flick with a pal”, with a pointed look at Abed, the next day, and he couldn’t resist.

They worked their way through Molly Ringwald’s IMDb page, and if Abed found himself ignoring half the things Pierce said during the movies due to sheer grossness, he reasoned that Pierce put up with Abed’s jargon-laced live commentary the whole time, so they were kind of even.Plus, the home theater was _way_ better than watching movies on the little TV in his bedroom at home, so it was worth it.

He didn’t tell any of the others, mostly because he preferred to remain unattached and observant (though Troy was quickly becoming the exception to the rule, he found, which he was surprised to discover he didn’t mind).But Abed also knew that Jeff and the girls all thought he was a child, thought he didn’t know any better than to make friends with everyone who talked to him, and he didn’t really feel like defending his friendship with Pierce.The home theater was cool, but not cool enough to put that much effort into keeping it.

Once Troy moved into Pierce’s mansion, Abed had a much better excuse to use the home theater, but he still came by sometimes while Troy was at football practice or a dance class, and he and Pierce would watch the old comedies Troy didn’t really _get_ the way Pierce, who’d seen them on opening night, did.Abed had showed up one night with _Airpla_ _ne!_ on DVD, on a hunch, and Pierce seemed interested in Abed’s commentary for the first time, even pausing the movie once to ask for more information (which wasn’t something Abed really wanted to encourage, but it was nice to have someone listening for a change).

When Pierce ruined the study group’s Dungeons & Dragons game, Abed was furious (however well he managed to conceal it), but couldn’t help thinking privately that it was objectively _really_ _cool,_ probably cooler than anything Pierce had ever done, and he’d always thought Pierce’s fierce stubbornness was a strong character trait, at the very least.Sometimes Abed filled in as Dungeon Master for Neil’s D&D group, a ragtag band of misfits as prone to mischief as the study group—though Neil’s friends kept theirs confined to the hand-me-down dining room table in Garrett’s mom’s basement.Pierce had a semi-regular seat at that table, and never interfered with the game. _Probably_ because _he has a seat at the ta_ _ble_ , Abed realized after a few sessions, and jotted the theory down in one of his personal notebooks.

A few days before Troy and Abed’s housewarming party, Abed went over to Pierce’s mansion for a movie, and to check and make sure Troy hadn’t forgotten anything in his bedroom when he moved out.On his way out of Troy’s room, Abed noticed that one of the Norwegian troll dolls was missing from his spot on the shelf.He didn’t think much of it until he and Troy found the still-wrapped blue package in their trash, which of course they opened immediately, much to Troy’s horror when they discovered what was inside.

Abed stopped talking to Pierce that day.Pierce got huffy after a little while, enough to confront Abed about it after study group.Abed tried to slip away without answering, but Pierce wouldn’t let him.Abed explained that he knew Pierce planned on giving the troll doll to Troy, and that that meant Pierce and Abed were no longer friends.

“I don’t get it.I never gave it to him.I threw it out!”

“In the darkest timeline, you didn’t throw it out.”

It wasn’t _about_ the darkest timeline, really—Abed knew the darkest timeline wasn’t strictly real.It was about _this_ timeline, the one where Pierce thought it was a good idea to torture Troy like that, even though Troy _lived_ _with_ Pierce and Pierce _knew_ how easy it was to really scare Troy.It was about Pierce being a dick to Troy on purpose because he thought it was funny when Troy cried.Abed knew the timelines weren’t the most accessible device, but he wasn’t sure how else to explain what was making him so angry.

“In the darkest timeline, the troll doll caught on fire and Troy tried to eat it and lost his larynx.If you hadn’t brought the troll doll, Troy wouldn’t have eaten fire.He ate fire and destroyed his larynx because of you.”

“Again with this timeline crap?You know the other timelines don’t exist, right?You made them up, they’re in your head.”

“I know,” Abed shrugged, giving up, and turned to leave.

“You know, you’re insane, and nothing that you said ever made any sense to me.”

Abed stopped, but didn’t turn around.“You haven’t tried very hard,” he said coldly, and walked out, leaving Pierce alone in the study room.He broke into a jog as he left the library, and caught up with Troy halfway between Greendale and home.The next time he visited Pierce’s mansion was Halloween their senior year.

When Pierce died, he threw those same words back at Abed, and they hurt more than Abed let on, because there wasn’t just apathy in the words, but  _venom._ He didn’t say anything, didn’t feel like explaining the whole history of his friendship with Pierce, but when Troy said he’d take Pierce’s deal and go sailing around the world, Abed wished he had, while at the same time feeling grateful that he hadn’t.He wasn’t sure if it would have made Troy decide not to go, and he wasn’t even sure which one he wanted to be true, so he kept his mouth shut even afterward.

Even later, when he sat nearby while Troy and Jeff went through the legal documents outlining the arrangement and discovered that Pierce had explicitly, specifically prohibited Abed from joining Troy on his trip, he said nothing.He just fixed a mildly annoyed expression on his face and sat quietly, watching Troy and Jeff decide that Pierce must have thought Troy would look for loopholes a little harder than he had.

Abed never forgave Pierce for the trip.He tried to, because Pierce was dead now, and because after a while Abed realized that it was something Troy really did need to do, and maybe if Pierce had listed the whole study group’s names in the “prohibited companions” section, he would have—though forcing Troy to spend the whole time with LeVar Burton was cruel in itself, and Abed had found himself angry all over again when the familiar voice called out from the _Childish Tycoon_ (though luckily, Clone Troy seemed equipped to handle the situation).But whatever his motivations for sending Troy on that trip were, Pierce had gone out of his way at every turn to make sure that it hurt Abed as much as possible, and Abed wouldn’t forgive him for that.


End file.
